drudgery

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun drudgery contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of drudgery are grind, labor, toil, travail, and work. While all these words mean "activity involving effort or exertion," drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor.

an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery

When might grind be a better fit than drudgery?

The synonyms grind and drudgery are sometimes interchangeable, but grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body.

the grind of the assembly line

When is it sensible to use labor instead of drudgery?

While the synonyms labor and drudgery are close in meaning, labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.

farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor

Where would toil be a reasonable alternative to drudgery?

Although the words toil and drudgery have much in common, toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.

his lot would be years of back-breaking toil

In what contexts can travail take the place of drudgery?

The words travail and drudgery can be used in similar contexts, but travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.

years of travail were lost when the house burned

When would work be a good substitute for drudgery?

In some situations, the words work and drudgery are roughly equivalent. However, work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.

too tired to do any work

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drudgery With this one invention, millions of secretaries would soon be relieved of the drudgery of constant retyping, and the business office would have a boon in productivity almost as profound as the one the typewriter itself had ushered in long before. Pat Butler, Sportico.com, 16 May 2025 But her return to the drudgery of chemotherapy several days later was a difficult comedown. Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 1 May 2025 Digital tools empower people to focus less on operational drudgery and more on relationship-building—a dynamic any brand in retail, travel, or hospitality should be studying closely. Jeff Fromm, Forbes.com, 9 Apr. 2025 Each time he’s killed testing the alien atmosphere for viruses or absorbing massive amounts of radiation on a space walk, he’s resurrected in a printing machine in what amounts to a hilariously terrible immortal drudgery. Alison Willmore, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for drudgery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drudgery
Noun
  • The club supports dads who have endured any type of perinatal loss – that is, death of a baby during pregnancy, labor or within the first few weeks after birth.
    Matt Villano, CNN Money, 13 June 2025
  • Doctors scramble to treat people with heat stroke and pregnant women going into early labor due to triple-digit temperatures.
    Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2025
Noun
  • President Trump’s 2026 budget would freeze spending for many services for older adults, deeply cut others, continue his efforts to slash government staffing for key programs, and abolish a critical federal office that manages many of those initiatives.
    Howard Gleckman, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025
  • Seeing them at all used to be very rare, but sightings are increasing as their numbers grow thanks to conservation efforts.
    Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 4 June 2025
Noun
  • Kohli wiped the tears away and looked towards the heavens as all the pain washed away after years of toil and underachievement.
    Tristan Lavalette, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025
  • In the microcosm, every player, staff member, and yes, possibly even executive, has their own individual story of overcoming and toil which, on Saturday night, was realised in the glare of a thousand camera flashes.
    Jacob Whitehead, New York Times, 2 June 2025
Noun
  • Naperville’s fourth annual Juneteenth celebration, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, will be held Saturday at Rotary Hill Park.
    Annie Alleman, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2025
  • However, the library will be closed Thursday, June 19 in celebration of the Juneteenth federal holiday, which commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States.
    Julie Gallant, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 June 2025
Noun
  • The 29-year-old dabbed sweat from his forehead and tried to catch his breath after lip syncing to the Black Eyed Peas.
    Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 13 June 2025
  • The collection features elevated, fashion-forward sportswear, including luxe knitwear (polos, skirts and tops), sweat sets, tailored track pants and performance outerwear, along with workout gear, sporty tailoring, dresses, skirts, shirts and accessories such as handbags.
    Lisa Lockwood, Footwear News, 10 June 2025
Noun
  • The corporate laborers of the industrial age were drudges, and might have needed the scaffolding of managerial hierarchies to make widgets in bulk.
    Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2025
  • In other words, exactly the type of drudge work that corporates have outsourced for decades to offshore teams from the likes of Accenture, Cognizant and Infosys.
    Iain Martin, Forbes, 4 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • One showed camouflage fatigues worn by a Colombian fighter festooned with patches that include the flag of Ukraine.
    Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
  • The long day and possible fatigue come game time didn’t matter.
    Emma Moon, Charlotte Observer, 7 June 2025
Noun
  • Some of them aren’t physically or mentally ready to handle the grind and the pressure of playing in the National Hockey League.
    Steve Conroy, Boston Herald, 6 June 2025
  • However, there's a reason why teams have become proactive about buying players more rest throughout the grind of the 82-game regular season.
    Bryan Toporek, Forbes.com, 3 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Drudgery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudgery. Accessed 18 Jun. 2025.

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